Abstract
Modern agriculture needs a paradigm shift to make the world’s food production sustainable while mitigating social and environmental externalities. Although various policies to limit the use of agrochemicals have recently been implemented in the European Union, the use of both herbicides and fertilizers has remained fairly constant. Farmers are assumed to behave optimally, producing the best they can, given the agronomic constraints of their fields. Based on this assumption, reducing agrochemicals should inevitably have negative effects on food production, or reduce farmers’ incomes. Coupling empirical analysis based on field surveys and experimental trials where weed management and nitrogen input were manipulated in the same production fields and under real farming conditions, we demonstrate that high use of N fertiliser or intense weed control slightly increase yields, but that this increase is not enough to offset the additional costs incurred by their use. Our experimental design allowed inputs to be varied in a two-factor design, along a gradient spanning from organic to highly intensive farming, while holding all other conditions constant and thus avoiding confounding effects. Quantification of crop yields and gross margins from winter cereal farming showed that reducing dependence on weed management may not hamper cereal production in this system, and is economically profitable at the field level on the short term. Our study thus contributes to addressing a key gap in our economic knowledge, and gives hope for implementing win-win strategies for farmers and the environment.
Highlights
Intensive agricultural systems have negative social and environmental externalities such as pollution[1], affecting human health[2], and biodiversity loss[3], including the transformation of whole landscapes[4]
Impact of nitrogen and weed control on winter cereal yield and economic returns based on survey data
N = 33) was 2.6 times higher than in organic farming (OF) systems (2.4 ± 1.0 t ha−1, N = 22). This yield gap between conventional farming (CF) and OF exceeds the values reported in the literature[28] and is explained by differences in yield between crop species in the two farming systems (6.4 ± 1.2 t ha−1 in winter wheat which was mostly cultivated by CF farmers, versus 2.1 ± 1.3 t ha−1 and 2.3 ± 0.4 t ha−1 in spelt and triticale which were mostly cultivated by OF farmers)
Summary
Intensive agricultural systems have negative social and environmental externalities such as pollution[1], affecting human health[2], and biodiversity loss[3], including the transformation of whole landscapes[4]. We focus on the use of two main farming practices, nitrogen (N) use and weed control through herbicides and mechanical weeding, for cereal production. These two practices are applied intensively because of the alleged benefits they provide, improving yields and reducing variability[19]. With the help of farmers, we manipulated weed management and nitrogen inputs directly in their fields in a two-factor experimental design to investigate the effects of increasing or decreasing these two factors while holding all other conditions constant, such as soil class or other agricultural practices. The fields belonged to 23 farmers, covering a wide range of soil properties and farming practices, from organic farming (OF) systems without pesticides and inorganic fertilizers, to intensive conventional farming (CF) systems with a high reliance on agrochemicals
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